SUCCESS FOR ALBERTO MAGLIANO; THE
FIRST NON PROFESSIONAL ITALIAN ALPINIST TO CONCLUDE
THE ‘SEVEN SUMMITS’ CHALLENGE

“The last
peak was particularly tiring.” Milan, 3rd July 2003. On the 22nd of June,
18.00 local time, Alberto Magliano summited Denali in Alaska and became the
first non professional Italian alpinist - and the first alpinist after
Reinhold Messner – to have successfully reached the ‘seven summits’, the
highest peaks of each of the seven continents.

Magliano’s
mission to climb the ‘seven summits’ began in 1998, when he conquered the
first peak, the Aconcagua, in South America (Argentina, 6959 metres). This
success was followed by the triumph of the African summit Kilimanjaro in 1999
(Tanzania, 5895 metres), Mount Everest (Tibet-Nepal, 8850 metres) and Vinson
Massif (Antarctic, 4897 metres) both reached in 2002 and Kosciuszko
(Australia, 2228 metres) and Elbrus (Caucaso, 5642 metres) summited at the
beginning of 2003. On Sunday the 22nd June Magliano concluded the challenge
with the final seventh summit: Denali, (Mount McKinley) in north America
(Alaska, 6194 metres).

The most
extraordinary aspect of this challenge is that Magliano, 57 years old, is not
a professional alpinist but a highly qualified manager, now a consultant in
the tourism sector who discovered alpinism at 36 years old. He began training
in Valmalenco, part of the Italian region of Lombardy and has expanded his
experiences all over the world fuelling his passion for the mountains in an
aim to discover absolute freedom.

“The
concept of alpinism as a game and the possibility of destroying a myth excites
me. It demonstrates that if the most normal person has enough determination,
even if they have passed their life working behind a desk, they are able to
climb the highest peaks of the planet and experience those indescribable
sensations that are thought to be reserved only for the privileged few.”
Magliano comments when talking about his success in alpinism. “For me alpinism
is an extraordinary liberating activity, it is much more than a sport, and far
from a career: it’s a way of living, perhaps even a vision of the world.”

However,
the challenge does not end here for Magliano, he also aims to summit an eighth
peak in Oceania, the Pyramid Carstensz, (Indonesia, 4884 metres). This peak
and that of Kosciuszko are both at the centre of a geographical controversy
regarding the true seventh continent (Australia or Oceania). In fact only 60%
of the alpinists that have completed the ‘seven summits’ have climbed both.
Magliano has declared that he aims to reach this summit by the end of 2003.

and a personal message from ALBERTO: Good Morning to all the EverestNews.com
Team, congratulations for your great site, basic meeting point for
the people interested in Himalaya and in "big mountains".

I would like to inform you that I completed the Seven
Summits, being the second Italian after Reinhold Messner to do it, the first
italian not professional climber.